Frank McDonald/Dick Gleeson Interview
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Old City, New Dreams
A WEEK OF BIG IDEASRon Blacks, Dawson Street, Dublin 2
Tue October 5th, 2004 @ 7pm (Upstairs)“What about these new dreams?â€
Journalist Frank McDonald interviews Dublin City Planning Officer Dick Gleeson
Frank McDonald’s books record the misdeeds, crimes and national disasters that builders call progress in Dublin. He has arguably done more than anyone in Ireland to expose our bizarre relationship with our own environment.
Dick Gleeson is the newly appointed Planner of Dublin City – in other words, a man with considerable responsibility for the future appearance of the city.
This promises to be a very interesting meeting.
More details here: http://www.thedubliner.ie/template.php?ID=100&PageName=ronblacks
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As today is Monday the 4th does that mean that the interview is on tonight or is it on tommorow, tuesday the 5th?
Thanks
Phil
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e-mail trevor@thedubliner.ie
It kicks off at 7pm, although there are events all day
If their past articles of last month are anything to go by, it will be well worth attending.
I’m going in myself tonight and tomorrow
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I thought it was an interesting discussion, but I thought that Frank gave him quite an easy ride. I thought he dodged around questions about the likes of social housing and market forces within the city as opposed to actually really answer them. Overall though, a good discussion.
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Originally posted by phil
I thought it was an interesting discussion, but I thought that Frank gave him quite an easy ride. I thought he dodged around questions about the likes of social housing and market forces within the city as opposed to actually really answer them. Overall though, a good discussion.I’d agree. I also thought he dodged the tall buildings issue too – he rather casually threw in that that would be under review for at least another year. I would have liked to have asked him about it but I was too far back – next to the wine.
All in all though an excellent evening more of the same only in a venue where you can actually hear the proceedings
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Yep, a very good evening and hats off to The Dubliner. Organisation was a bit iffy; the interview was changed to downstairs at the last minute and there were sound and capacity issues. However, it just goes to show that there’s a market for intelligent debate in a relaxed setting such as this. DCC would do well to organise some of their consultations along these lines. Frank did give him an easy ride but I think we have a good city planner in Dick Gleeson.
Working from memory (please correct me if I’m wrong), DCC would like to see real mixed-use in all of the citys residential hot-spots. He cited the IFSC as an example of the way forward, admitting that Phase 1 was lacking but that Phase 2 is injecting life and a sense of place into the area. Ditto for Smithfield. Problem is that development is still market led and developers have had their fingers burnt after falling for the ‘build it and they will come’ mantra. DCC is structured in such a way that it cannot front-load capital intensive projects itself and relies on the Government which he says has been slow to release funds.
The three towers in Heuston are still very much part of their plans though the whole area of tall buildings is under review. They are still caught up in legalities re the Carlton site but regard it as absolutely crucial to their regeneration plans for the street. Seems like the new Abbey is top of their list for the site but the window of opportunity may close soon.
He didn’t really see the benefit of the airport metro link and given a choice would like to see the Luas integrated and extended to a figure-of-eight pattern in the city centre serving the cultural, business, shopping and residential areas on both sides of the river. He wasn’t in the least bit repentent about the trees on O’Connell St and said that you sometimes just have to bite the bullet. Agrees that there is a lack of greenery in the city centre and there will be a shift of focus from the large estate public lands on the city fringes to more central areas. Temple Bar will be a priority in this regard. From the floor we had a statement from the ‘indignant mad woman’ (Helen Lucy Burke) re overshadowing of the artisan housing in the Coombe with tall office blocks and the allegation that DCC engineers were specifically ordered to quickly cover over any archaeological finds lest they hold up works. One question related to the provision of a shuttle bus to and from the Phoenix Park (apparently only tour buses are allowed in the park) and a question about why the gates of all the greens are closed at sundown (‘Would anybody want to go in if they were open’, he retorted). Biggest cheer of the evening was for a proposal from the floor that College Green be pedestrianised to which he said he agreed and was being looked into.
P.S Afterwards I had Frank sign my copy of ‘The Destruction of Dublin’ and he mentioned his new book is being written under the working title of ‘The Destruction of Ireland’ and will document the blight of ribbon development, poor suburban housing development, corrupt county councils, et al. Sure to be interesting!
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Audience were rapt for well over an hour.
Top restaurant critic she may be, but Helen Lucy Bourke came across as your average residents association psycho, totally out of tune with concepts of the European city & urbanism (though her qualms may have been valid in another circumstance – I gather she was referring to shitty ’90s Zoe-type developments in her area – what can we do about that now?)
Saw you with your book, telemach – I was on the platform to your left.
Thought the point he made about the “interconnector” going through the south underbelly of the city & not adding any animation to the street was good, & the desireability of an extended on-street tram network for the city centre.
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Devin, I was sitting beside her and I must say I was almost in shock when she stood up and started her rant. At first I thought she was talking about some of the social implications regarding the Coombe, but then, as you say, I realised that it was just a rant. For the rest of the time she kept saying things to me that I could not really hear, but expected me to agree with. I must say I would not agree with Dick Gleeson on alot of issues, but I certainly think that style of attack gets no one anywhere.
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Dick seems to favour the figure of 8 plan to link the two Luas line. I think he was quite clear that not linking the original scheme was a mistake. When pressed about the airport metro over the interconnector he was coy but my impression is that the interconnector is seen as a much more beneficial and necessary project. Both he and Frank made the point of how many people would actually require a metro service into the CC. From a holistic planning perspective light rail seems to have a better chance of contributing to the area it serves in terms of new perspectives and new development. Metro on the other hand gets people around more efficiently and faster.
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